Re: Re[3]: Protecting WebFonts

>Michael Bernstein wrote:
>
>> TrueDoc creates new versions of existing fonts and distributes those 
>> new versions.  In any country where the outlines are protected, that 
>> distribution is illegal if it's without the permission of the 
>> copyright owner for the original outlines.  In the US, it's illegal 
>> for dingbat fonts and for fonts with design patents.

Brad Chase:
>TrueDoc performs the same function as a FAX machine. The difference is 
>that TrueDoc rasterizes at the receiver instead of the sender, allowing 
>the use of the best possible resolution.

This is confusing. I'm given to understand, by the SWFTE case and others 
similar to that, that if I can prove that font B can be created from font 
A using some process, I have proven that the data from font B is actually 
derived from the data from font A. Font B is then covered by the 
copyright of font A, whether it is a textface or dingbat or whatever.
Although I don't exactly know how a truedoc font is created, I can 
analyse the result of the font and see if font A always converts to the 
same bunch of truedoc data, simply by doing the conversion twice and 
comparing the results. 
Unless truedoc adds some random values to the data to make it conciously 
different each time, I would argue that a truedoc version of a font is 
still covered by the copyrights of the original, because the conversion 
procedure can be repeated. I don't even have to know how the format works 
exactly in order to use it. Perhaps just comparing bitmaps derived from 
truedoc renderings of fonts can illustrate the conversion procedure 
enough. Something to be tested in court?

Keeping the format proprietary is not going to work as a protection of 
type, it is only a way of getting license fees. Adobe tried it with type 
1 and only had a temporary advantage. Webfonts need to work on many 
platforms on many browsers for many different applications, many of which 
are outside the scope of what truedoc can do. Truedoc does not seem to be 
the general solution the webfonts issue is in search of. If only for the 
reason that the web has hopefully outgrown the fax stage already.



erik van blokland, LettError type & typography
Home of the Randomfonts, Trixie, BitPull & GifWrap.
   letterror http://www.letterror.com
   typelab   http://www.dol.com/TypeLab/

Received on Monday, 26 August 1996 19:17:20 UTC